Metal door



J. H. GUSS METAL DOOR Nov. 21, 1933.

Filed June 11, 1932' 2 Sheets-Sheet l Nov. 2l, 1933. J. H. Guss1,936,300

METAL DOOR Filed June 11,. 1932 2 sheets-sheet 2 gmc/Hm:

John JI. G/uss www.

Patented Nov. 21, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

10 Claims.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in doors, and moreparticularly to a door made up of a plurality of metal sections whichare, in turn, light in weight and relatively cheap to-manufacture.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a door made upof a plurality of metal sections, which door will be especially suitablefor small garages, twarehouses, steamer docks or other buildings where alight metal door of nre-proof construction and light weight isespecially desirable.

Another object of the invention is to provide a door made up of aplurality of metal tubes that may either be rolled up into a cylinderover the top of the doorway or may be pulled back in an outstretchedcondition over the top of the doorway and then lowered, when desired.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a metal door made upof three different types of metal sections, that is. a head tube or topsection, a number of intermediate sections, and a lowermost section. Thelowermost section is designed to tightly rest on. a curved thresholdplate to thus prevent any snow or rain from being blown under the door.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a door that may berelatively light in weight so that it may be raised by the employment ofa small motor or may be raised by a chain and sprocket arrangement.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in certainnew and 4novel Varrangements and combination of parts, as willhereinafter be more ully described and pointed out in the claims.

Referring now to the drawings showing one embodiment,

Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a portion of a garage and showing oneform of installation of the door and the latter being in its closedposition;

Fig. 1a is an enlarged detail sectional view of a portion of Fig. 1;

Fig. '2 is a front elevation of a door in place, the parts being brokenin the center for convenience of illustration;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail sectional view on the line 3-3of Fig. 2, ofone end of a tube mounted in the guideway;

Fig. 4 is a detail section showing shaft or tube;

Fig. 5 shows one of the intermediate tubes; Fig. 6 is a view showing thefinal tube adapted to fit over the threshold plate;

the head (Cl. 18S-46) the doorway is a channel 4 in which Iits the endsof the tubular sections 5, which will shortly be described in detail.The channel 4 curves near the upper edge of the doorway, as at 6,

and extends rearwardly, as at '7, as may be clearly seen.

In Fig. l, there may be seen a sprocket 8 at the rear of the,guidewaywhich, in turn, is driven by a shaft and pinion 9, the shaft, in turn,being driven from the motor 12, which may be conveniently located. Overthe sprocket 8 and two other sprockets 8' and 8" passes a chain 9'which, in turn, is to be connected to the upper and lower ends of thedoor, so that a driving of the sprocket 8 will raise or lower the door,as desired.

Of course, any form of connection with the motor and sprocket might beused and, if necessary, a reducing box or any other connection with themotor to. properly drive the sprocket may be utilized.

The electrical connection with the motor may be a box 13 locatedslightly to one side of the doorway and out in front of the door, sothat if desired the driver of the automobile may reach 90 out and pressa desired button to thus raise or lower the door by the operation of themotor.

I have not shown any specific type of control in this electrical box,and it willbe understood that any desired control may be used, sol thatif one button is pushed, for instance, the door will raise and the motorautomatically cut on? when the door has reached its upper limit, while,in the same way, if another button is pushed, the door may be loweredand the motor cut oi when the door has properly descended.

Referring now more specifically to the gist of the invention, referenceis made to Figs. 4, 5 and 6, and referring specifically to Fig. 4, therewill be seen a tubular section 14 which may be rolled or pressed out ofa single piece of thin sheet steel. It ,will be noticed that the tube isnot entirely circular, as there is an opening 15 for the reception ofwhat I term the flange of an adjacent intermediate tube.

` the arcuate iiange 18.

Referring for the moment to Fig. 5, one of these intermediate tubes maybe seen consisting of the tubular portion 16, the integral web 17, andThe arcuate ange 18 will be slipped within the opening 15 of the tube14. A succeeding intermediate tube 16 is shown in dotted lines in Fig.5, and this succeeding tube being shown in an angular position toillustrate how the ends oi' the iianges 18 will at all times overlie theopening 15 of the adjoining tube, even though the same is in angularrelation thereto. Any number of these intermediate tubes will be used,depending on the height desired for the door.

To form the bottom of a door, a final tube is used, which is somewhatsimilar to the others in that there is a tubular portion 20, the web 21,and the arcuate flange 22 on its upper portion. However, the bottom ofthis tube has a slightly raised portion 23 formed therein so that it maysnugly t a threshold plate 24 that has the arcuate or dome-shapedportion 25 centrally thereof to thus form a tight joint with thethreshold plate, as may be understood from Fig. 7.

Thus, it will be seen that the door is made up of the desired number ofintermediate tubular sections, a head tube and a final tube, the finaltube, in turn, resting upon a special form of threshold plate.

Now to substantially seal these tubes from the elements, that is, where.they flt within the guide channels at the sides, and to prevent any rainor snow from blowing in these side channels, I provide a number oflittle end blocks 26 that are to be riveted along the opposite ends ofthe tubes, that is, riveted to the webs of the tubular sections, so thatthese small end blocks will, in turn, snugly iit within the guides orchannels to, in turn, sealthe door at these points from any rain that isdriven against the door.

'Ihe tubes are preferably made from one piece ofv metal but it is withinthe scope of my invention to make these tubes out of a lighter metal,say of galvanized sheet metal or of two pieces of metal, crimped orsoldered together to form the diiferenttypes of tubes desired.

In Fig. 8, I have shown a slightly different v arrangement of raisingand lowering the door,

and in this instance the door, made up of the sections heretoforeexplained, passes up in channel guides 30 and there may bea shaft 31with a sprocket thereon over which will pass a chain 32 to, in turn, beoperated by a sprocket 33 with a handle 34 which may be located on theoutside of the garage.

Besides placing the lsmall blocks formed of rubber or other suitablematerial to the webs of the various sections at the opposite sides ofthe door to form a seal with the channel, I may also insulate the websof the tubes, as shown in Fig. 9. It will be appreciated that thecircular part of the tubes form a dead air space, and by placing a strip35 of rubber, fiber or cloth along the web and riveting it as at 36 orotherwise securing the insulation in place, the door as a whole will bewell insulated to thus keep the garage cooler in summer and warmer inwinter.

It is possible to roll this door into a relatively small compactcylinder, due to the manner in which the lower portion of theintermediate tube is formed, that is, the opening is not directlycentrai of the bottom of the tube but from a point near the centerupwardly about the periphery, as

may be clearly seen in Fig. 5. Thus, the tubes' form of lock may beusedfof course, to lock the may swing at a substantial distance from thevertical, as is shown by the dotted line position in Fig. 5. Therefore,the door as a whole may be rolled into a relatively compact cylinder.Any

door in its closed position. From the foregoing, it'will be seen that Ihave devised a door that is made up of a plurality of tubular metalsections consisting substantially of a head tube, a plurality ofintermediate tubes and a final tube and the tubes so arranged that thedoor as a whole may be rolled into a rather compact cylinder or may bedrawn quickly up over the doorway in conveniently arranged guides.

Furthermore, it will be seen that the door will be practicallystorm-tight, as the guides or channels at the side, together with thesmall end blocks, will present a rather snugflt for the door, while thearrangement of the threshold plate, together with the final tube, willkeep the rain from blowing in under the door.

Also, the door is one that is well insulated against heat and cold.

I am aware that it is old to make doors of various sections and do notclaim my 4invention broadly as such.

What I do claim,l however, and by Letters Patent is:-

1. A door formed ofI a plurality of metal tubum5 lar sections consistingof a head section, a plurality of intermediate sections and a bottomsection, the intermediate sections being each provided with a web and anarcuate flange, and the head section and intermediate sections beingeach provided with an opening to receive the iianges of the adjacentsections, a bottom tubular section having a web and a flange tointerlock with its adjacent section, and the bottom of the tubularsection being arcuate and adapted to rest on a threshold plate.

2. A door formed of a plurality-of metal sections consisting of a topsection, a plurality of intermediate tubular sections, each of whichlatter is provided with an upwardly extending web andm anI arcuateflange at the outer end of the web, each of saidA sections being alsoopen along its bottom and to one side of a vertical central plane,

a bottom section similarly interlocked to the intermediate sections buthaving its bottom closed and arcuate inform and adapted to rest on asimilarly curved threshold plate.

3. A door formed of a plurality of metal tubular sections consisting ofa head tubular section open along its bottom and to one side of acentral vertical plane, a plurality ,of intermediate tubular sections,each of which sections is provided with a web and anarcuate ange at theend 4of the web, each of saidvintermediate sections also being openalong its bottom, the flange of each section interlocking in itsadjacent section, a bottom section also provided with a flangeinterlocking with its. upper adjacent section, the i bottom tubularsection having a concave lower surface and adapted to rest on an arcuatesur-.11u face, and blocks secured to the webs of the tubllar sectionsand near the outer ends of said tubes.

4. A door formed of a plurality of metal sections, the said sectionsconsisting of a Ihead or, top section open along its bottom,l aplurality of 1 5 intermediate tubular sections also open` along theirrespective bottoms', each of said sections provided with a web andanarcuate ange, the flanges of each of said sections adapted to intertwithin its adjacent section, a bottom section indesire to secureterlocked with its upper'adjacent section, the said bottom section beingunbroken throughout its circumference, small blocks intertting betweenthe adjacent tubular sections and secured to the Webs near the ends ofsaid sections, and channels for receiving the blocks and ends of thesaid sections.

5. A door formed of a plurality of interlocked tubular sections, websextending between the tubular parts of each of said sections, and aninsulating material shaped and secured along the respective webs.

6. A door formed of a plurality of intermediate tubular sections, eachof said sections comprising a tubular bochr portion open along itsbottom, a web extending from the periphery of the section and an arcuateiiange along the outer edge of the web, said arcuate flange adapted to twithin the opening of its adjacent section and to close the opening insaid section, insulating material shaped and secured along therespective webs, and a top section and a bottom section also interlockedwith said intermediate sections.

7. A door formed of a plurality of intermediate tubular sections, eachof said sections comprising a tubular body portion open along itsbottom, a web extending from the periphery of the section and an arcuateflange along the outer edge of the web, said arcuate ange adapted to twithin the opening of its adjacent section and to close the opening insaid section, insulating material secured along the respective webs, atop section anda bottom section also interlocked with said/intermediatesections, and means for raising and lowering the door.

8. A metal section of a door comprising a tubular body portion openalong its bottom surface and to one side of a plane extending verticallythrough the central axis of the tubular section, a web extendingoutwardly from the tubular body, an arcuate flange formed along the edgeof said web, and the arc of the ange correspond-V ing to the arc of thetubular portion.

9. A flexible metal door consisting of a plurality of interlocked metaltubular sections, integral webs extending from each of the tubularsections; an insulation secured along the respective webs, sealingblocks secured to the webs near the opposite ends of said metal sectionsand fitting within guide channels for the door, and means secured to thedoor 'for raising and lowering the same in said guide channels. A

Y 10. A iiexible door adapted to be wound into the shape of a cylinder,said door consisting of.

a plurality of interlocked swingable tubular sections, each of saidsections having a web and a ange and the iiange of one section fittingwithin the tubular portion of its adjacent section, a guide channel, andthe ends of the tubular sections movable within said channel, means forraising and lowering the door, and the bottom section of the dooradapted to seal with a threshold plate.

JOHN H. GUSS.

